Bathurst 1000 winner Shane van Gisbergen will drive in Chicago in NASCAR for singer Pitbull

Reigning Bathurst 1000 Championship Shane van Gisbergen is set to test himself in NASCAR in the United States after the Kiwi recently launched a stunning spray in the Supercars series.

The Triple Eight Race Engineering star has accepted an invitation to drive in July in Chicago at a NASCAR meeting for Trackhouse Racing – the team co-owned by Grammy Award-winning rapper Armando Christian ‘Pitbull’ Pérez.

The Chicago Street Race street course race is the first of its kind for the NASCAR Cup Series and van Gisbergen will compete as a one-time opportunity to test his skills at that level.

‘Are [NASCAR] one of the greatest motorsport series in the world,” said van Gisbergen.

“To have the opportunity to be a part of it and jump straight to the top level in America is incredible.”

Kiwi-born van Gisbergen, who last year drove the No. 97 Holden ZB Commodore for Triple Eight Race Engineering to win Bathurst, will race the No. 91 Chevrolet for Trackhouse Racing.

The champion driver has revealed that he will head to the US immediately after the Darwin race on June 18 before returning to resume the Supercars season on July 7 at Townsville.

Trackhouse Racing is co-owned by Justin Marks and Pitbull. The team already has an impressive driver line-up with Ross Chastain and Daniel Suarez.

Van Gisbergen had admired the sport from afar for many years, so when Trackhouse knocked, he opened the door to the opportunity to stir up some doubters who believe he is about to retire from Supercars.

Van Gisbergen recently fueled that fire after making several swipes at Supercars during an interview after Bathurst, saying extending his contract by a year had more to do with his love for the Triple Eight team than the series yourself.

The Kiwi indicated that he would like to pursue more rally and speedway racing, while also thinking about a future in the United States.

“I have to be careful what I say because sometimes it gets taken out of context, but we’ve got new cars that are great, so taking the product overseas – what’s the point. Let’s grow the sport here, go to Winton and get people to fall in love with the sport again.” he told Fox Sports.

“It’s weird because the series is worse than ever, all the background stuff, it’s really bad”

My team is great though. I loved the challenge this year with the car.

“But I’m here to race and sometimes you have to forget not to be selfish.”

Van Gisbergen has consistently expressed concerns about the Gen3 cars when discussing his future, with Red Bull moving from racing Commodores to Chevrolet Camaros after Holden’s demise.

“It’s changed but in some ways it’s stayed the same and I just love being part of this team, it’s a great group of people. Saying I’d like to see Supercars race more.’

Going to Chicago, while daunting, has eased the pain a bit with Marcos Ambrose paving the way for Aussie drivers in recent years.

“It looks like a totally different way of racing and racing with the yellow, the green and white checkered discs and the way they do the pit stops,” van Gisbergen said.

“It’s very different from anything I’ve done before, so I really need to study and make sure I’m sharp when the time comes.”

Ambrose, who was the Supercars supremo in 2003 and 2004, raced in 227 NASCAR events over a seven-year span.

And Ambrose got a phone call from van Gisbergen asking what he could expect.

‘Marcus was one of the first guys I called for advice,’ Van Gisbergen said.

“He helped me a lot, he just gave me a lot of basic pointers and how to tackle the weekend.”